Calibre and iOS 4 Sync

[HarryO53]

I have noticed that Calibre is now capable of syncing with devices that use iOS 4. My books started attempting to sync as soon as I installed the mobile OS.

Calibre is returning errors occasionally and not transferring many books.

Where is the syncing process documented for Mac OSX and iOS 4, if it is?

Does it use the iTunes app as a means to sync?

What format do eBooks have to be in to be transferred?

Lots of questions, and I can't find the answers. If I need to be more specific about errors, I will.

The majority of my books will not transfer using Calibre. I have been moving these books using iTunes, but would rather not.

Thanks!

[itimpi]

You might want to look at this thread - the first post in the thread is the master reference for this facility. The facility was initially developed for the iPad as it requires iOS3.2 or later, and has since been extended to also support iOS4 iPhone and iTouch devices.

I guess it is about time for this information to be transfered to the User Guide?

[kovidgoyal]

It is in the User Manual:

http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual...-iphone-itouch

[itimpi]

I think only some of the information on using Calibre in conjuction with iTunes is in the manual! Most of the information is historical for use with Stanza, whereas with the general availability of iBooks on the various iDevices and iOS4 this is now likely to be what people are interested in interfacing to. Examples of points I have not seen in the User Guide is how Series data is mapped for iBooks purposes.

[kovidgoyal]

I'm waiting until the dust settles on the iTunes driver to update that section. GRiker is still actively working on it.

[itimpi]

OK - Makes sense

[GRiker]

I've updated the 'Under the hood' section in the initial post of 'Calibre + iPad: Start here' to include the current iTunes <> calibre metadata mapping. Here's the relevant section:

Current iTunes <> Calibre metadata mappings as of 0.7.7:

    * Album - Title
    * Artist - Author
    * Composer - uuid
    * Description - (description generated when sending file)
    * Enabled - True
    * Sort Artist - author_sort
    * Sort Name - (function stripping 'A', 'An', 'The' from title)
    * Comments - Comments
    * Rating - Rating
    * Genre - (first tag starting with alpha character)

If option to use Series as Genre is checked:

    * Genre - Series
    * Episode ID - Series
    * Episode Number - series_index
    * Sort Name - Series series_index

On my to-do list is a feature to allow user-customizable mappings, but it won't be right away.

G

[HaoleKai]

Here's my issue. I have an iPod Touch and just installed iOS 4 and now it's recognized by Calibre.

The problem is that I don't want it to be recognized by Calibre, and I certainly don't want it to auto-synch my RSS feeds. The only device I registered with Calibre was my kindle.

It's never tried synching with my iPod before so it took me a little while to figure out what all the errors were about this morning. I can't seem to find anything in the settings, but is there a way to tell Calibre to not recognize, or at least to not auto-synch with the iPod? Do I have to make sure it's disconnected before running Calibre from now on?

I reinstalled 0.7.5, but that didn't help, it still sees the device.

[itimpi]

Go into Preferences->Plugins->Device Interface Plugins and disable the Apple plugin. That will stop Calibre from seeing your device.

[HaoleKai]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Go into Preferences->Plugins->Device Interface Plugins and disable the Apple plugin. That will stop Calibre from seeing your device.

Yup, that did it, thanks. I never thought to look under plugins. It's interesting that they're all enabled by default.

I think I'm going to take a look at what other plugins are enabled.

[HarryO53]

[QUOTE=itimpi;989183]You might want to look at this thread - the first post in the thread is the master reference for this facility. The facility was initially developed for the iPad as it requires iOS3.2 or later, and has since been extended to also support iOS4 iPhone and iTouch devices.

This explains a bit to me, however, there are a couple of things in these steps that don't seem to coincide with the version of Calibre, 0.7.6 (OSX), that I'm using. I can't select any device for default output in Calibre/preferences....there is no selection entry for this anywhere in preferences. Also, when I click on the 'send to device' icon's arrow, there is no selection for iTunes to highlight so my items will, in fact, be sent to iTunes.

I have followed the procedure as outlined in the thread, but no luck.

Thanks.

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by HarryO53

This explains a bit to me, however, there are a couple of things in these steps that don't seem to coincide with the version of Calibre, 0.7.6 (OSX), that I'm using. I can't select any device for default output in Calibre/preferences....there is no selection entry for this anywhere in preferences. Also, when I click on the 'send to device' icon's arrow, there is no selection for iTunes to highlight so my items will, in fact, be sent to iTunes.

There is no default device - calibre assumes that you want to connect to whatever device it sees, unless you disable its plugin.

If you read the Quick start instructions in that thread, you will see that you need to select 'Connect to iTunes' before sending content to your iDevice.

G

[HarryO53]

I got Calibre to talk to iTunes, finally. I sent one news document to iTunes.

My problem now is that I can't seem to send multiples over.....Calibre becomes unresponsive. I have to force quit Calibre to continue.

Maybe I'm missing something here. Is the connection that unstable at this point that multiple books and documents can't be transferred? I find that hard to believe.

Thanks!

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by HarryO53

My problem now is that I can't seem to send multiples over.....Calibre becomes unresponsive. I have to force quit Calibre to continue.

Maybe I'm missing something here. Is the connection that unstable at this point that multiple books and documents can't be transferred? I find that hard to believe.

If you're having problems, please refer to the If you have problems... section of the referenced thread to create a ticket. The driver's been steadily evolving since its release a month ago, there could still be some bugs. Many users do bulk transfers routinely (including me) without incident.

G

[itimpi]

A question - is it possible to have the option to send to iTunes even if the Apple Device driver is disabled? This could be a desireable option if it is not already there. I am tending to send my books to iTunes at the moment when my device is not connected and syncing later. It would be convenient if the iPad and/or iPhone was never recognised by Calibre so that I can still use my Sony Reader at the same time even if I have the iPad/ iPhone connected in a dock most of the time.